FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — United States men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino called Christian Pulisic “a special player,” and says he’s confident that the forward will end his goal drought and deliver for the USMNT at the World Cup.
Pulisic has yet to score for club or country since the start of the calendar year, a stretch of 21 appearances. His last goal came in a 3-0 win for Milan against Hellas Verona on Dec. 28.
His dry spell for the USMNT goes back even further, with his last goal in a U.S. shirt coming in the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Nations League against Jamaica on Nov. 19, 2024, a span of eight matches.
Speaking to reporters at a roundtable on Thursday, Pochettino said he’s convinced that Pulisic will soon be back to his goalscoring ways.
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“For me, [Pulisic] is a special player,” the U.S. coach said. “I mean, it’s a pleasure that we are going to try these three weeks to recover his confidence and we really trust in him and we have the confidence that he’s going to perform.
“Of course, OK, he didn’t score in the last, I don’t know, six months. He’s going to score in the World Cup. Yes, I really trust on that.
“I really trust [him]. I have confidence on him. He has very good attitude, very good. He’s trying so hard to get his best level and I think he will achieve it for sure.”
One advantage that Pulisic will have heading into the tournament is that he’ll have an in-form striker by his side in AS Monaco‘s Folarin Balogun, who tallied 19 goals on the season in all competitions.
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U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams said that Balogun’s presence will create more room in which Pulisic can operate.
“You occupy center backs. I think that’s the most important thing,” Adams said about Balogun.
“If you’re a center back and you’re having to think about the run in behind and then you have Christian popping up, Malik popping up in between the lines, it makes my job easy as well because you have the option of playing behind or find feet.
“But yeah, it’s a threat. It’s a big threat.”
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Balogun expressed confidence he’ll be able to continue his fine club season at the World Cup.
“I think it’s important to bring that [belief] with the national team and to bring that of course to the biggest stage of all, the World Cup,” Balogun told reporters.
“So I have a lot of confidence in myself and yeah, I have high expectations and I feel I do have the quality and belief in myself to do it on the bigger stage.”
